Ninety years ago, on July 4, 1934, one of the world’s most influential and greatest scientists passed away. Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the only woman to win a Nobel Prize for two separate scientific fields, died as a result of aplastic anemia caused by the action of radiation.
Pierre Curie (1859-1906) and Marie Curie (1867-1934). French physicists. Discoverers of radium in 1898. Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903. Credit: Prisma/Universal Images Group 
Nobel Laureate Marie Curie and Daughters. Credit: Science Faction/Universal Images Group 
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist in 1925 in her office at the Radium Institute, Paris, of which she was director of research from 1918-1934 . Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist, with her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) with members of the Institute of Radium, Paris. On the right is their co-worker Andre Debierne. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist. Obverse of medal issued in 1967 to commemorate the centenary of her birth and celebrating the isolation of Polonium and Radium which she achieved in 1898. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist, and her daughter Irene, with pupils from the American Expeditionary Corps at the Institute of Radium, Paris, in 1919. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group
Born as Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, she would receive a general education and teach to earn a living, but she found it difficult to pursue her passion for scientific research in her native Poland, and moved to Paris as a twenty-four year-old to pursue scientific studies at the Sorbonne. In 1894 Marie would meet and later marry Pierre Curie, a physics professor.
U.S. President Warren G. Harding escorting Marie Curie down steps to south grounds of White House, Washington, D.C., USA, National Photo Company, May 1921. Credit: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Marie Sklodowska Curie, born Maria Salomea Sklodowska, 1867 – 1934. Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist. From The Pageant of the Century, published 1934. Credit: Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group 
Early Photographic portrait of Marie Curie (1867-1934) a Polish and naturalized-French physicist, chemist and the first female Nobel Prize winner. Dated 19th Century. Credit: Photo12/Universal Images Group 
Photographic portrait of Marie Curie (1867-1934) a Polish and naturalized-French physicist, chemist and the first female Nobel Prize winner. Dated 20th Century. Credit: Photo12/Universal Images Group 
Photograph of Pierre Curie (1859-1906) a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity. Pierre was also the husband of Marie Curie. Dated 19th Century. Credit: Photo12/Universal Images Group 
Photograph of Marie Curie (1867-1934) a Polish and naturalized-French physicist, chemist and the first female Nobel Prize winner. Dated 19th Century. Credit: Photo12/Universal Images Group
Before Pierre Curie’s tragic death in 1906, the Curie’s pursued scientific research projects together. The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the couple in their brilliant research and led to the isolation of polonium, which was named after the country of Marie’s birth. Marie earned her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and with her husband earned her first Nobel Prize, for Physics, in 1903. She would receive her second Nobel Prize, for Chemistry, in 1911.
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist in her laboratory in 1912, the year after she received here second Nobel prize, this time for chemistry. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born French physicist in her laboratory, 1912, the year after she was awarded her second Nobel prize (for chemistry). Awarded Nobel prize for physics in 1903 jointly with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel. . Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 
France c. 1920 Portrait of two time Nobel Prize winning chemist and physicist Marie Curie. Credit: Underwood Archives/Universal Images Group 
Marie Curie With Husband. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group
For the remainder of her life Curie continued pursuing scientific goals. She helped establish the Radium Institute at the University of Paris in 1914 and worked towards establishing a radioactivity laboratory in Warsaw with the help of funds raised in the United States and presented to her by US President Hoover in 1929.
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Sources
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Marie Curie”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jun. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Curie Accessed 25 June 2024.
https://www.NobelPrize.org From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967